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Morris: Arrest hurts team concept
USC Defensive End Clifton Geathers laughs with teammates during practice.
C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com /C. Aluka Berry
Posted on 08.28.09
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WHEN A PLAYER is suspended 10 days prior to a season-opener, the off-field indiscretion becomes more of a crime against the team than the individual.
Guilty or not, Clifton Geathers’ scrape with law enforcement early Sunday morning harks back to what Steve Spurrier has complained about since he arrived at USC five years ago.
With his actions, Geathers, like the others before him who have been arrested and served suspensions under Spurrier, showed a lack of commitment to his teammates and the program.
“All the teachings and all the information in the world, sometimes people don’t listen very well,” Spurrier said Thursday. “They sometimes make bad decisions.”
Spurrier, who is quick to point out this is Geathers’ first instance of poor behavior, admits the suspension hurts the team. Geathers was listed as a starter at defensive end, where USC already was thin.
“It’s like two guys getting in a fight on the field, and one guy breaks his hand hitting the guy in the facemask,” Spurrier said. “That’s stupid, too, and they still do that. Two of our guys got into a little scuffle the other day, one was a starter and one was a down-the-line, third-team lineman. Our assistant coach said, ‘It’s not worth it, you hitting him like that.’”
Geathers already is paying a heavy price for his actions. Under school policy, Geathers has been suspended from the team since his arrest around 3 a.m. outside Club Ice and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. The school is expected to announce soon the length of Geathers’ suspension. Additionally, he will have a court case to deal with.
It is important to gain some perspective on the incident. The party included somewhere between 15 and 20 USC football players who gathered to celebrate the 21st birthday of junior safety Chris Culliver. The party included Culliver’s mother and an aunt, according to assistant coach Ellis Johnson, and had no other incidents.
“Something popped up and blew up,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t a freight train headed for trouble. Somebody accidentally turned down a one-way street.”
That somebody was Geathers, and his wrong turn showed a lack of regard for his teammates, his team and the university he represents.
“We try to emphasize that,” Johnson said. “It hurts their family. It hurts their parents. It hurts any organization they’re a member of, including the team. We harp on those things. (We tell them), try to think about more than just yourself.”
That is what separates athletes from run-of-the-mill students arrested for boorish behavior. The athlete represents the team and the university at all times. That is part of what bothers Eric Norwood, USC’s All-SEC linebacker, about the Geathers’ suspension.
“It hurts the team,” Norwood said. “It’s my job, along with other captains on the team, to talk to the guy and get him not to repeat the same thing. That’s the captain’s job, to tell them not to ever make that decision again.
“We talk about it. But as sad as it is, it really takes something like this to happen for it to really hit home, to really see how it hurts us.”
Talks to the team by law-enforcement officers, curfews and restrictions on night activities will never eliminate off-field problems by athletes. But if schools want to curb such transgressions further, they could use the always-effective tactic of peer pressure.
Former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith penalized the entire team for the indiscretions of one teammate. If a player missed a class, for example, the entire team ran in practice the next day.
Johnson said USC uses the practice in some instances, at least on the field. During scrimmages and games, coaches on defense chart missed assignments, missed tackles, pre-snap penalties, post-whistle penalties and plays not finished at full speed. All players on defense run extra as penalty.
“There is peer pressure,” Johnson said. “It drops from about 75 penalty situations that first scrimmage to 40 something the next time. Then, the last scrimmage we had about 16.”
Maybe Spurrier should to have the entire team run the Williams-Brice Stadium steps at 6 a.m. upon Geathers’ return. Perhaps peer pressure would help curb off-field incidents.
Then again, until USC gets a commitment from every player to behave properly and put the team and program ahead of the individual, there will be more arrests and suspensions that prove a deterrent in Spurrier’s quest to build a championship program.
Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM
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